Refrigerator



Patented July 26, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATOR Application filed October 14, 1931.

It is known that when a refrigerator is opened for the purpose of having access to the contents of any of its shelves warm exterior airis admitted to the whole interior with, of course, reduction in cooling efficiency. My object by the present invention is to avoid this, and in fact, given any housing containing drawers to be individually withdrawn and having. their front walls when they are closed combining to shut in the air contained in said housing and the drawers apertured to permit circulation of air through them, it is my object to obstruct displacement of the air from the drawers when 1.; any one drawer is pulled out.

In the drawing,

Fig. -1 is a vertical front-to-rear section on line 11, Fig. 2 of a refrigerator containing my invention, one drawer being shown with so drawn and certain parts appearing in elevation; Q

Fig. 2 is a front fragmentary elevation thereof, with two drawers withdrawn and in section on line 22, Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of one of the rollers on line 3-3, Fig. 1.

1 is the mentioned housing here open at the front, being rabbeted around its opening 2 to receive the rabbeted margin of a door (not 30 shown).

In the housing, guided by any guiding means as rollers 3, are arranged superposed sliding drawers whose front or closure walls 4, when they are back or fully housed, to-

3 gether close the opening 2. At 5 is a freezing unit, shown by mere dotted outline. Each drawer here has sides 6 and each except the top one (in order to avoid interference with the freezing unit) has a back wall 7.

4 Each drawer also is open or has an aperture adjacent the next drawer, as at its top and bottom, but the bottom aperture is of the reticulated or foraminous class, so that support for the contents of the drawer is afforded, here by forming the bottom wall of the drawer as a piece of heavy wire netting or grid 8; in other words, the drawers when in their normal position, or closed. form a passage for air within the housing to circulate through them.

Serial No. 568,661.

Between the drawers and at the back of the housing are arranged guiding means. This may be horizontal rollers 9 journaled in suitable bearings 10.

In supports 11 secured (here) to the lower portion of each superjacent drawer is fast the shaft 12a of a roller 12 which controls a flexible connection which reaches around the corresponding one of the means 9 and is attached to the rear wall of the next subjacent w drawer, and which as to its part 13 embracing the roller 12 is an imperforate flexible screen or partition and as to its remaining part- 14 may be cords or the like. Roller 12 is normally urged, by a spring 15 wound around its shaft and attached at its ends to the roller and shaft, to wind up the connection on the roller.

In the normal or closed position of all the. drawers communication of their interiors with each other through their apertures is permitted but the space within the housing is closed off at the front, or through opening 2, by their then alined front walls. If a drawer is pulled out with respect to the remaining structure comprising here the housing and the other drawers it is to be considered that the partition whose roller is mounted in that drawer and which then unwinds obstructs flow of air through the projecting 80 part of the drawer from one of its apertured sides to the other. It is also to be considered that, said structure having a space adjoining and open to the space occupied by the drawer when closed (to wit, the space occupied by an S5 adjoining drawer), the pulling out of said drawer effects of the drawing back of an other partition which then obstructs flow of air from one of said spaces to the other.

In the present case, where the apparatus is a refrigerator and where each partition is arranged at the bottom of a drawer, when a drawer. as a, is withdrawn, resulting in the unwinding of the two partitions connected therewith, the lower partition obstructs fall- 9:. in; of the cold air in this drawer through its bottom, or grid 8, between the front of such drawer and those of the other drawers, and the upper partition obstructs the falling of cold air in the next superjacent drawer b. 100

This, inthe case of a refrigerator, of course means economy in the operation thereof.

Whereas the drawers in the example are superposed, with respect to the fact that when a drawer is withdrawn flow of air through it is obstructed, or flow of air in the housing and as between the space within a drawer next to-that pulled out and the space left by the latter is obstructed, it is not broadly ma terial that the drawers-are thus arranged superposed.

It will be understood that the drawing more or less diagrammatically illustrates the invention. I

Having thus fully described my inventlon what I claim is:

1. The combination of a drawer apertured at opposite sides thereof and having a front closure, a containing structure for the drawer having an opening through which the drawer" is withdrawable and normally closed by the drawer, a roller journaled in the forward portion of the drawer, a flexible connection wound on the roller and connected to said structure and having the part thereof embracing the roller forming a partition, and means normally urging the roller in the rotativedirection to wind said connection thereon, said roller being arranged so that when the drawer is withdrawn and the partition unwinds the latter will obstruct flow of air through the projecting part of the drawer from one of its apertured sidesto the other. 2. In combination, a drawer, a containing structure for the drawer having an opening through which the drawer is withdrawable and a space adjoining and open to the space occupied by the drawer when closed, a'roller journaled in the forward portion of the first space, a guide in said structure rearward of the roller, a flexible connection wound on the roller and attached to the drawer and extending around the guide and having the part thereof embracing the roller forming a partition, and means normally urging the roller in the rotative direction to wind said connection thereon, said roller bein arranged so that when the drawer is with rawn andthe partition unwinds the latter will obstruct flow of air from one of said spaces to'the other.

3. The combination of a drawer apertured at opposite sides thereof and having a front closure, a containing structure for the drawer the one wound on the first roller'being connected to said structure and the other extending around the guide and connected to the drawer, and separate means normally urging the respective rollers in the rotative direction to wind said connections thereon, said rollers being arranged so that when the corresponding partitions unwind the first partition will obstruct flow of air throughltheprojectin part ofthe drawer from one of its aperture sides to the other and the second partition will obstruct flow from one of said spaces to the other.

4. The combination of adjoining drawers together forming a passage for air to circulate in them, a containing structure for the drawers having an opening through which each drawer is withdrawable and normally closed by such drawer, a roller journaled in theforward portion of one drawer, a guide in said structure rearward of said roller, 9. flexibleconnection wound on the roller and connected to the other drawer and having the part thereof embracing the roller forminga partition, and means normally urging theroller in the rotative direction to wind said connection thereon, said roller being arranged so that'whenthe partition unwinds the partition will obstruct circulation of air in said passage.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

FREDERICK EINERMANN.

having an opening through which the drawer j is withdrawable and closed by the drawer when the latter is closed and also having a space adjoining and open to the 'space'occupied by the drawer when closed, a roller in the forward portion of the drawer, another roller journaled in thefirst space, a guide in said structure rearward of the rollers, flex-' ible connections respectively wound on the rollers and each having the part. thereof embracing theroller forming a partition and 

